Walmart Has Plans for Self-Driving Shopping Carts

In the future, Walmart shoppers can expect to see shopping carts rolling themselves around the megastore. Now that the company has secured a patent for automated carts, customers and employees will eventually have a robotic shopping buddy.

Click2Houston says the patent recently approved by the U.S. Government stated that “…the carts will be equipped with detachable motors that have sensors and video cameras.” For customers to make use of the new technology, they can request a cart via an app (probably on one’s smart phone), which will send the cart rolling in their direction.

The carts will even know how to return to a docking station, which will help employees out greatly. They will no longer need to wrangle up all of the abandoned carts in the store and parking lot, which is a constant battle for organization.

Walmart could also use these smart carts to investigate what’s in stock. The cart can check the shelves for a certain product and relay the information back to employees.

There’s no release date in the works for these automated carts just yet. For now, customers and employees will have to settle for the regular, old-fashioned shopping carts.